Title: Am I Normal Yet?
Author: Holly Bourne
Paperback: 434 pages
Published: August 1st 2015 by Usborne Publishing Ltd
My Rating: 5/5 stars
*TRIGGER WARNING FOR OCD/ANXIETY BEING DISCUSSED*
Summary (from Goodreads): All Evie wants is to be normal. She’s almost off her meds and at a new college where no one knows her as the girl-who-went-crazy. She’s even going to parties and making friends. There’s only one thing left to tick off her list…
But relationships are messy – especially relationships with teenage guys. They can make any girl feel like they’re going mad. And if Evie can’t even tell her new friends Amber and Lottie the truth about herself, how will she cope when she falls in love?
This book started with me picking up …And a happy new year? in my school library. For those not in the know, this is a novella-capstone-type book on the end of the Spinster Club series.
I started reading it aloud to a couple of friends and we fell in love with the three narrators. The bit that got us was two texts between Amber and Lottie;
Amber: Christmas is over
Lottie: But the patriarchy isn’t
To which we all went “Same.”
So anyway. Our librarian, Heidi (who is awesome, btw) told us that it was the end of a series.
Cue one mad dash to the shelf to find Am I Normal Yet?
Surprisingly, I won!
(Well. I won by default. One friend is halfway through Crooked Kingdom and the other Lady Midnight, so it was technically mine for the taking. But I digress.)
I got through it in three days.
All things considered, I’m quite impressed.
Anyway, the book.
It.
Was.
Awesome.
The author has shied away from nothing and presented one of the most real voices I’ve read in YA lit. The book is feminist, and has no issues with discussing feminist issues. Things like periods are brought up, no sweat. I really wish they weren’t a taboo topic in society, considering about half the population get them; one tiny, tiny qualm I have is that the three girls’ periods all seem to last only 3 days.
If only.
The other main topic is mental health, specifically OCD and anxiety. The book handles this sensitively and realistically, without romanticizing mental illness.
Evie’s relapse was so, so believable. Her thought processes, actions, just everything was so real and understandable. The way that “Bad Thoughts” are laid out on the page emphasizes how they invade the mind and take up more and more room.
A note, however; the book can be triggering. When I say that the author has shied away from nothing, I mean nothing. Everything is described in absolute detail. Just a heads up, if you were planning on reading this.
My favourite part (besides some SAVAGE one liners and the first author’s acknowledgement that I’ve actually read) was Evie’s speech at the end. It just brought up such a relevant issue? It’s one that speaks to me on a personal level and I had to put the book down for a few moments to contemplate it.
For a book labelled ‘Romance’, I have to argue; the romance takes a backseat to the friendship. Amber, Lottie and Evie – the Spinster Club. Amber, I feel got more character development than Lottie. She felt more vivid (though, that may be to her physicality being pointed out more, being 6 foot tall with flaming red hair) and I found myself sympathizing with her.
Lottie, I sympathized with a lot less, but I think that’s mainly down to me not digging sex. As a character, she’s brilliant – brutally honest and sparky as hell.
So back to the romance. We have three contenders: Ethan, Guy and Oli.
Ethan – This guy is a textbook douche. Shows up drunk to a date, then sleeps with someone else? No thanks. His apology halfway through thawed me a little, before he sexually assaults Evie (again) by kissing her and we were back a square one. #youtried.
Guy – I just…loathe this one. The way he treats Evie like an object? The way he never actually speaks to her? This is one of the most realistic portrayals of a toxic relationship that I’ve read – it never really hit home how easy it is to fall into one.
Oli – Bless Oli. He’s not present in the book as much as I’d expected, after what I’ve read from …And a happy new year? but what we did get was beautiful. Having a male character suffering with anxiety is something that I rarely get to see, and the stereotype of male characters kinda hit home for me? Either way, I have a soft spot for this guy.
The next book, How Hard Can Love Be? I am already reading. It’s Amber’s point of view, so hopefully it’ll live up to expectation!
Has anyone else read this? What’re your thoughts?
Holly xx
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